Shape of things to comeBoeing releases video of air-born tactical laser in action
In the (near) future, a laser weapon-carrying aircraft might be hidden by distance or darkness, and selected targets — cars, buildings, cell towers, etc. — would appear suddenly and inexplicably to burst into flames
The day of deployed laser weapon nears. Boeing has released video of its aircraft-mounted ray cannon, the Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) in operation. The company does not say how far the carrying Hercules transport plane was from the target vehicle in the video, but there is no audible engine noise on the soundtrack, suggesting that it was some distance off.
Lewis Page writes that in the offered clip the laser beam does not seem to penetrate the vehicle’s bonnet, but Boeing has previously announced that the ATL has “defeated” a stationary vehicle in tests, so it could be assumed that the blaster-gun is capable of doing so (see 2 September 2009 HSNW).
The ATL is the smaller of Boeing’s two airborne death ray projects: the larger, the jumbo-jet mounted Airborne Laser (ABL), is said to be in the megawatt range and is intended to destroy intercontinental missiles boosting up through the atmosphere, beaming them out of existence from hundreds of kilometers away.
Page notes that the ATL has no such clearly defined purpose, but it has been speculated that it could be used as a silent, invisible, traceless sniper. The carrying aircraft might be hidden by distance or darkness, and selected targets — cars, buildings, cell towers, etc. — would appear suddenly and inexplicably to burst into flame, or suffer a serious burn, going by the video. Lending credence to such ideas is the fact that the ATL has been developed under the auspices of the Special Operations Command.
Page writes that this weapon probably will not be a tool for every day. The current lasers run on dangerous chemical fuels, and hints dropped by Pentagon scientists suggest that the length of time the beam can be kept burning without costly and troublesome replenishment is limited. In most situations a conventional AC-130 gunship or a helicopter sniper would be more useful, and cheaper.
